


No Longer Empty

by carolej126



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Family, Gen, Magnificent Seven AU: Little Britches ATF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 13:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18621634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolej126/pseuds/carolej126
Summary: Written for the VinList December 2013 Christmas Countdown Mod Challenge – Prompt: Empty





	No Longer Empty

The blankets had been tossed aside and were now hanging haphazardly on the floor.

JD’s pillow was at the foot of his bed; Vin’s on the floor.

And both beds were empty.

“Any guesses?” Buck asked.

Chris thought for a second. “In the family room, looking at presents.”

“Or opening them!”

“Nah,” Chris disagreed. “The boys are good about waiting.”

Buck laughed. “Remember that year that Vin got up early and decorated the house?” 

“I sure do.” 

“And the time that JD decided to make Christmas breakfast for everyone?”

“Kinda hard to forget, since he wasn’t allowed to cook anything!” 

The two men looked at the empty beds again. 

“Watching cartoons?”

Buck listened for a second. “I don’t hear anything.”

“With the sound off,” Chris explained.

“Playing outside in the snow?”

Chris’s eyes went wide. “They’d better not be!”

Buck reconsidered. “Too dark.”

“And too cold.”

“So…”

The search was a short one.

The two pajama-clad boys were sound asleep, snuggling together on the floor, just below the large window that looked out onto the front yard and provided a picture-perfect view of the night sky.

Vin was using Cat as a pillow; for JD, Scooby-Do had been pressed into service.

And each boy held, in a limp grasp, a pair of binoculars.

Chris smiled.

Buck chuckled. “Think they spotted Santa and those reindeer of his?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Chris retorted quietly.

Each boy was carefully lifted into the loving arms of a father, carried down the hallway, and deposited back into bed.

“Chris?” Vin mumbled sleepily. “The reindeers was here.” 

“Go back to sleep, son,” Chris murmured, retrieving Vin’s pillow and tucking it beneath the small boy’s head.

“’k.”

“Da?” JD whispered.

In the process of covering JD with a blanket, Buck paused. “Yes, son?”

JD yawned. “We see’d Santa.”

Buck grinned, exchanging a quick glance with the other man. “I bet you did. You can tell us all about it in the morning, okay?” 

JD’s only response was a soft snore.

Pausing for a moment in the doorway, looking back toward the two no-longer-empty beds, Chris whispered, “Merry Christmas, boys. I love you.”

“Merry Christmas,” Buck echoed softly. “And the same goes for me.”


End file.
